Manipulation of stomatal density was investigated as a potential tool for enhancing drought tolerance or nutrient uptake. Drought tolerance and soil water retention were assessed using Arabidopsis epidermal patterning factor mutants manipulated to have increased or decreased stomatal density. Root nutrient uptake via mass flow was monitored under differing plant watering regimes using nitrogen-...

the present research focuses on the changes of urmia lake level. for this purpose, two timescales have been considered. the trend changes of temperature, precipitation rate and quantitative values of climate type for the observational period from 1968 to 2011 (past scale) and from 2011 to 2100 (future scale) have been analyzed. general circulation model (gcm) is considered for simulating the va...

introduction: studying the hydrological cycle, especially in large scales such as water catchments, is difficult and complicated despite the fact that the numbers of hydrological components are limited. this complexity rises from complex interactions between hydrological components and environment. recognition, determination and modeling of all interactive processes are needed to address this i...

The uptake of radioceasium and radiostrontium in biota in dose assessment models is mostly estimated on the basis of Concentration Factors (CF). For accidental releases, the dynamical foodweb model BURN has been implemented in the coastal model POSEIDON (part of the Decision Support System RODOS). BURN can be applied on water bodies with different salinity levels, since in the model the uptake ...

Although clouds are the most recognisable and defining feature of tropical montane cloud forests, little research has focussed on how clouds affect plant functioning. We used satellite and ground-based observations to study cloud and leaf wetting patterns in contrasting tropical montane and pre-montane cloud forests. We then studied the consequences of leaf wetting for the direct uptake of wate...

In plants, water deficiency can result from a deficit of water from the soil, an obstacle to the uptake of water or the excess water loss; in these cases, the similar consequence is the limitation of plant growth and crop yield. Silicon (Si) has been widely reported to alleviate the plant water status and water balance under variant stress conditions in both monocot and dicot plants, especially...

Gelatin is considered as a partially degraded product of collagen and it is a biodegradable polymer which can be used to produce scaffolds for tissue engineering. Three-dimensional, porous gelatin scaffolds were fabricated by thermally induced phase separation and freeze-drying method. Their porous structure and pore size were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Scaffolds with differ...

Coating performance is greatly influenced by the properties of the wood substrate. This study was focused on evaluating the performance of coatings on both preservative- and thermally-treated wood. A number of commercially formulated semi-transparent stains Alkyd, Alkyd-Acrylic and PU were applied on four different types of preservative treated and heat-treated wood and their performances were ...

Understanding water uptake and transport through the soil-plant continuum is vital for ecosystem management and agricultural water use. Plant water uptake under natural conditions is a non-steady transient flow controlled by root distribution, plant configuration, soil hydraulics, and climatic conditions. Despite significant progress in model development, a mechanistic description of transient ...